This was the "Why only us?" question I had to grapple with as a young adult.
Is it true? Heaven in only for Christians? What does that even mean?
Without the big picture nothing makes sense.....
Since God never intended to take humans to heaven in the first place, why did the need arise to do so?
That is the question we have to answer first.
If heaven was only open to Christians, then there has to be a reason why Jews thought that they were going to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”...? (Exodus 19:5-6) Were Jews in expecting to go to heaven? NO! They expected God’s kingdom with Messiah as leader to be established on earth.
Even as Jesus was ascending to heaven, his Jewish disciples asked.....
”Lord, are you restoring the kingdom to Israel at this time?” (Acts 1:6)
They were told to wait in Jerusalem for the holy spirit, which would reveal the big picture to them.
Upon receiving the holy spirit, they finally knew what was going to take place. Throughout his ministry Jesus had tried to tell them things about the kingdom of God, but they didn’t understand. Now they did.
When Jesus said he was going to “prepare a place” for his apostles, they did not grasp that he meant in heaven. He said that ‘where he was going, they could not come just yet’, but that they would serve in the Kingdom of God as “kings and priests” with their Lord and Master as King and High Priest. (Rev 20:6; Heb 3:1)
So, the disciples only discerned that their role would be in heaven from Pentecost onward. But Paul told them that they would sleep in death until Jesus called them home at his return. There was no timeframe placed on that.
No one went to heaven before Jesus, and his apostles and those anointed by holy spirit, (given a “heavenly calling”) would awaken in due time and be called “home” to begin their assignments.
Kings need subjects and priests need sinners for whom to intercede and guide mankind in worship....so who are their subjects......and for whom do they act as priests?......The redeemed human race, whom God originally created to live on earth forever.....his purpose for us has never changed. He chose Christ’s disciples because they were taught by his own son, who in turn was taught by his Father. They are a small number compared with those of the vast majority of mankind who sleep in their graves waiting for Christ to call them to come out. (John 5:28-29) All the dead come from the same place, as all have gone to the same place...”sheol/hades” is the place where all the dead “sleep” peacefully until it is time for the kingdom to restore all things, including all the lives lost over many centuries. People of all nations and faiths who died before Christ came, will be given an opportunity to get to know the true God and to learn his ways.
Those chosen for a place in heaven have a specific role, and that is to be of servce to redeemed mankind.....but for those resurrected back to life on earth, it will be service to God that they render, by assuming the role that they were created for in the first place....that of being God’s representatives on this earth as caretakers of all creation......they have been created with God’s cardinal qualities so as to treat the earth, it’s creatures, as well as each other, as God himself would.
At the end of the 1000 year reign of the kingdom, all will go back to the way it was meant to be in the beginning....fully restored to God’s original purpose. (Rev 21:2-4)
What about the lake of fire?
It is a symbolism of everlasting death.....a condition that only the incorrigibly wicked will suffer....it will remain as the place where all unrepentant, free willed rebels will go in this present judgment period, and in the future, if they decide to pull a stunt like satan and our first parents did...only now we have the annals of our history to attest to the stupidity of such disobedience. There will be no excuse in the future....we will still have free will, but we will have learned through bitter experience, how to drive it.....never to disobey God again.
That is how I believe the Bible paints the big picture.....
